Microsoft-Yahoo search/ad deal approved in Australia, Canada

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Canadian …

Australia and Canada have both approved the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo search and advertising deal, making them the first regulators in the world to sign off on it, giving Microhoo two fewer antitrust authority groups to worry about. "Microsoft and Yahoo! have been notified that Australian and Canadian authorities have separately concluded their reviews and have no objections to our proposed search agreement," the two companies said in a joint statement. "We continue to believe that this deal will create a true, competitive alternative in the marketplace that will benefit consumers, advertisers and publishers. We remain hopeful that the agreement will close in early 2010." The United States and Europe are still evaluating the proposal and have not yet reached any final decisions.

The ACCC considered that the proposed agreement was unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the relevant markets. Factors informing this conclusion included:

- Microsoft and Yahoo! had an existing relationship in Australia, in which Microsoft utilized Yahoo!'s paid search platform. Therefore, Microsoft and Yahoo! through their respective Australian subsidiaries - ninemsn and Yahoo!7 - did not compete for paid search advertising in Australia;

- Microsoft and Yahoo!'s share of online paid search advertising queries in Australia was limited. In combining search engine platforms, Microsoft and Yahoo! may have been able to achieve the necessary scale to provide effective and sustainable competition to Google, which had a very large share of online paid search advertising queries; and

- the proposed agreement did not appear to decrease innovation incentives for either of Microsoft, Yahoo! or Google.

The Canadian Competition Bureau, on the other hand, has yet to publish its findings, but has nevertheless notified both Yahoo and Microsoft that it approves of the proposed agreement. The big antitrust reviews by the US Department of Justice and the European Union Competition Commission are still in progress.

In July 2009, Microhoo announced a 10-year partnership that would have Microsoft leading the duo's search efforts and Yahoo leading the advertising team. In September 2009, the US Justice Department demanded more information about the search deal, suggesting that talks could get lengthy, and a week later, news came through that Microsoft and Yahoo had started informal discussions with European Union antitrust regulators.

3 Reader Comments

Whoppee, we have an American Googgle with lets say 80%, and American Microsoft and American Yahoo coming in to take the other 20%, and we have an American dominated search engine that sends Australians and Canadians to, shall I say areas of interest that support, American products, ideology, and anything else that could benefit American sphere of influence. Boy when they talked about Globalization years ago, its really hitting home.

Originally posted by Crushit:Whoppee, we have an American Googgle with lets say 80%, and American Microsoft and American Yahoo coming in to take the other 20%, and we have an American dominated search engine that sends Australians and Canadians to, shall I say areas of interest that support, American products, ideology, and anything else that could benefit American sphere of influence. Boy when they talked about Globalization years ago, its really hitting home.

What is Googgle? And, nice pull out of your backside to get those numbers.

Originally posted by Crushit:Whoppee, we have an American Googgle with lets say 80%, and American Microsoft and American Yahoo coming in to take the other 20%, and we have an American dominated search engine that sends Australians and Canadians to, shall I say areas of interest that support, American products, ideology, and anything else that could benefit American sphere of influence. Boy when they talked about Globalization years ago, its really hitting home.

What is Googgle? And, nice pull out of your backside to get those numbers.

Must of hit a soft spot, one letter and a couple of points to set you off. Whats the matter no body in the world saying "We love America" to feed your ego.